The idea of the first cellular network was brainstormed in 1947. It was intended to be used for military purposes as a way of supplying troops with more advanced forms of communications. From 1947 till about 1979 several different forms of broadcasting technology emerged. The United States began to develop the AMPS network, while European countries were developing their own forms of communication, NMT and ETACS.
The first real handheld mobile phone from Ericsson was the HotLine Pocket, introduced in 1987. Nils Rydbeck, head of R&D at the Ericsson Mobile Telephone Laboratory in Lund, really built it as a design project. He and his colleagues wanted to see if they could fit all the necessary components into a casing of a certain size. Made for the Nordic NMT 900 system the HotLine Pocket was based on a previous model for police radios.
By 1989, the time had come for the next HotLine model. The NH72 was more compact and lighter than the HotLine Pocket. This was because its predecessor was made from existing components, while the NH72 was based on a completely new design.
With the NH72 Ericsson also introduced a new way of designating their mobile phones, N for NMT and H for Handheld. This system was used in most standards, for instance GH (GSM, Handheld), DH (TDMA, Handheld) and AH (AMPS, Handheld), up until 1999 when it was replaced by the A, R, T-system.
One year after the NH72 Ericsson introduced a less expensive phone on the market, the NH51. From the beginning of the 1990s, however, the number of models launched increased and Ericsson began to manufacture mobile phones for both analog and digital standards. GH174, NH97, GH197, GH198 and NH237 are all models from the early 1990s.
NMT
NMT (Nordisk Mobil Telefoni or Nordiska Mobil Telefoni-gruppen, Nordic Mobile Telephony in English) launched in 1981, was the first generation of mobile telephony and the first fully automatic cellular phone system. By today’s standards, the bulky telephones are humorous – little did we know then, it was the start of the revolution enabling global mobility.
Ericsson NMT systems meet the very latest international standards, delivering advanced, high-quality services and networks in more than 40 countries around the world.
ETACS
Total Access Communication System or TACS is the European version of AMPS (Advanced Mobile Phone System). ETACS (Extended Total Access Communications System) was an extended version of TACS with more channels, which was announced as the choice for the first two UK national cellular systems in Feb 1983, less than a year after the UK government announced the T&Cs for the two competing mobile phone networks in June 1982.
Vodafone (known then as Racal-Vodafone) opted for a £30 million turnkey contract from Ericsson (ERA) to design, build and set up its initial network of 100 base station sites. Ericsson has a strong commitment to improve and refine this analogue wireless system.
AMPS
AMPS (Advanced Mobile Phone System) is the analog mobile phone system standard, introduced in the Americas during the early 1980s. Under the command of Ericsson Radio Systems present CEO Lars Ramqvist, a new joint venture company was formed together with General Electric on July 1, 1989, under the name Ericsson GE Mobile Communications.
The company consisted of all mobile phone activity of both companies in Sweden and USA. Ericsson owned 60% of the company, and General Electric owned 40%. Ericsson took 30 percent of the US mobile market and could also describe itself as the only supplier of complete mobile systems for every standard. At the end of 1993 General Electric left the board for the joint venture. Eventually, on April 1, 1998, General Electric used a bail-out sell clause in the contract with Ericsson and sold its remaining last part of the joint venture back to Ericsson, which thereby became the sole owner of the company.
Though analog is no longer considered advanced at all, the relatively seamless cellular switching technology AMPS introduced was what made the original mobile radiotelephone practical, and was considered quite advanced at the time.
AMPS 800
TDMA
TDMA (Time Division Multiple Access) is a further development of the north-American 1G mobile system, AMPS. It was once prevalent throughout the Americas, particularly in the United States and Canada since the first commercial network was deployed in 1993.
The name “TDMA” is also commonly used in the United States to refer to Digital AMPS (D-AMPS). An American digital technology for mobile telephony, developed by, among others, Ericsson. It has become the common name of the US digital standard.
TDMA 800/AMPS 800
TDMA 800/TDMA1900/AMPS 800
TDMA/AMPS ~ AT&T Wireless
CDMA
CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) is a channel access method used by various radio communication technologies. In 1993, the CTIA (Cellular Telephone Industries Association) accepted CDMA as an American mobile phone standard. In this way the American market divided into two camps, one based on TDMA and the other on CDMA.
CDMA 800/AMPS 800
CDMA 800/CDMA1900/AMPS 800
PDC
PDC (Personal Digital Cellular) based on TDMA technology, is a second-generation technology used in digital cellular telephone communication in Japan. Although all users are currently in Japan, operators in other regions of the world are actively considering PDC.
Starting in 1991, Ericsson, through its joint venture with Toshiba, won a series of important cellular network contracts from the Digital Phone Group, for PDC networks operating in the 1500MHz band. In February 1996, the Ericsson CMS 30 system for PDC passed the one million subscriber mark. Ericsson is the main network supplier to six PDC network operators in Japan, and through its joint venture with Toshiba, has around 20 per cent of the PDC network market.
GSM
GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications, originally Groupe Spécial Mobile), is a standard developed by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) to describe the protocols for second-generation (2G) digital cellular networks used by mobile phones, first deployed in Finland in July 1991.
The growth of GSM, which became a de facto world standard, combined with Ericsson’s other mobile standards, such as D-AMPS and PDC, meant that by the start of 1997, Ericsson had an estimated 40% share of the world’s mobile market, with around 54 million subscribers. There are five major GSM frequencies that have become standard worldwide: GSM 900, GSM 1800, GSM 850, GSM 1900 and GSM 400.
GSM 900 and GSM 1800 are standards used mostly worldwide. It is the frequency European phones operate on as well as most of Asia and Australia. PCN (Personal Communications Network) uses the DCS-1800 systems, which is similar to GSM 1800, but up converts the frequency to 1.7–1.88 GHz, therefore the network structure, the signal structure and the transmission characteristics are similar between PCN and GSM, but operational frequencies are different.
GSM 850 and GSM 1900 are primarily United States frequencies. They are also the standard for Canada GSM service and countries in Latin and South America. Most of the Cingular network operates on GSM 850, while much of T-Mobile operates at GSM 1900. T-Mobile however, has roaming agreements with Cingular. Meaning in the case of no service at GSM 1900, the phone will switch to GSM 850 and operate on Cingular’s network. In North America GSM-1900 is also referred to as PCS (Personal Communications Service).
GSM 400 is the least popular of the bunch and is rarely used. It is an older frequency that was used in Russia and Europe before GSM 900 and GSM 1800 became available. There is not many networks currently operating at this frequency.
GSM 900
GSM 1800 (PCN)
GSM 1900 (PCS)
GSM 1900/AMPS 800
GSM 900/1800
GSM 900/1900
GSM 900/DECT
DECT (Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunications/Digital European Cordless Telecommunications) is a standard primarily used for creating cordless telephone systems, developed by CEPT and ETSI. The DECT standard was developed by ETSI (European Telecommunications Standards Institute) in several phases, the first of that took place between 1988 and 1992 when the first round of standards were published.
GSM 900/Satellite
GSM 900/1800/1900
Thanks to a community forum of Ericsson mobile phone fans on Esato.com
A collaborative effort to make a complete list of Ericsson models names.
Includes:
• Commercial Names
• Code names
• Release dates
• Bands and Networks
• Form factors
• Prototypes
• Limited editions
Ericssoners 